|
Goodbye Lover Review
by Ray Garton
1999
Directed by:
Roland Joffe
Written by:
Ron Peer (story & screenplay)
Joel Cohen (screenplay)
Alec Sokolow (screenplay)
Starring:
Patricia Arquette - Sandra Dunmore
Dermot Mulroney - Jake Dunmore
Don Johnson - Ben Dunmore
Ellen DeGeneres - Sgt. Rita Pompano
Mary-Louise Parker - Peggy Blane
Ray McKinnon - Rollins
Ben Dunmore is a man who is so fit, slick, and tan, who appears to be so completely together, you can smell his aftershave. He's a successful public relations man at a firm called Iconage where he works with his brother, Jake. But as together as he seems, Ben's life is a mess. He has to keep covering for Jake, who has a drinking problem, no motivation, and is spinning out of control. At the same time, Ben is having a raunchy affair with Jake's wife Sandra. She's a realtor who not only listens to Tony Robbins's motivational tapes, but commits them to memory, right down to his verbal pauses. She watches and admires Martha Stewart — "How does she do it?" she asks. The Sound of Music is her favorite movie, and her days are filled with its songs. She is cheerful, helpful, and considerate — on the surface.
Ben is afraid of what their affair will do to Jake if he ever finds out — he's clearly unstable already — and knows he must bring it to an end. But Sandra is persistent, to say the least. And daring. Ben is the organist at the church he, Jake, and Sandra attend, and early in the movie, Sandra goes up to the loft, puts the organ on automatic pilot, and has her way with Ben while a choir sings for the pastor below. She gets kinky with handcuffs in a house she's supposed to be showing. The owners show up unexpectedly while Ben is handcuffed to the bed, and they have a close call, which only seems to encourage Sandra.
Meanwhile, Ben's secretary Peggy makes google-eyes at him and nearly melts in his presence. "I just think you're such a great guy," she gushes. Ben is drawn to her — he thinks she is someone with whom he could have "something real." Upset that he's begun to pay attention to Peggy, Sandra becomes more aggressive. While they take up the offering at church, she tells him, a bit too loudly, "You'll never wake up with her sucking you," and insists that he meet her again or she'll reveal their affair to Jake.
And this is merely the set-up, just the beginning of the movie, before murder raises its ugly head.
When Goodbye Lover was released in 1999, it was savaged by critics, and pulled from theaters sometime during the second act of the first screening. It was too labyrinthine, they said, too outlandish and plot-heavy and had too many characters and too much going on. Okay, so maybe it's a little jam-packed, and at times the plot takes the wheel of the movie from the characters (but only briefly). Yes, it is labyrinthine — but what's wrong with that if it works? There is so much to recommend the movie, it's easy to forgive its flaws, which aren't big enough to do any serious damage. However, it's difficult to discuss all the things that make this such a delicious movie without spoiling its surprises.
While it's a dark comedy and a cynical slice of noir, Goodbye Lover is about image — even more, it is about what we hide behind the images we project. The focus is on Sandra Dunmore, who presents an image of pluck and determination, of drive and commitment. She not only attends church, she is actively involved in it and is greatly admired by Reverend Finlayson (a smiling Andre Gregory). But beneath that squeaky, positive image, there lurks a woman without a shred of conscience who does whatever is necessary to get what she wants. She has drive and commitment, all right, but they're black as tar. Sandra is one of the most devious, soulless femme fatales to show up in a movie in a long time. But she is not alone here.
Ben has created an upstanding image that hides the mess that is his life. And Jake, too, works to project a certain image of himself in the eyes of others for reasons of his own.
Into all this comes Sgt. Rita Pompano and her new partner Rollins. Not at all image-conscious, Pompano is about as cynical as you can get, but she makes no attempt to cover it up, it's all right on the surface. When her partner asks her how she can be so cynical, Pompano says, "Because, Rollins, somebody shot Bambi's mom." She happily shares her thoughts about people in general — they are not generous — and Rollins asks her why she would take a job with the motto "To Protect and Serve" if she holds people in such low regard. "Because," she says, "every once in awhile, I get to shoot somebody."
Like Pompano, Rollins is exactly what he appears to be — a naive, caring, upbeat person whose concern for others is genuine, although at times cloying, and who drives Pompano crazy. He's a genuinely sincere person with a good heart, if a little annoying, but compared to the monumental cynicism of Pompano and the others here, Rollins comes off looking like a bubbleheaded idiot. He's not, but in this movie, being a decent guy looks a little goofy by comparison.
Everyone is image-conscious in one way or another, probably moreso today than ever before. Whether we're successful at it or not, we all want to project something strong and positive, to be perceived a certain way by others. Goodbye Lover accepts that as a given and asks, "What are we covering up?" The answer, of course, is some pretty dark thoughts, nasty wishes, greed, selfishness, and bad behavior.
Director Roland Joffe has done some good work in the past — The Killing Fields, The Mission — but he also directed Super Mario Brothers and 1995's The Scarlet Letter. He's running on all cylinders here, and maintains an eye-twinkling sense of naughtiness throughout the movie. It easily could have gone over the top, but taking itself too seriously would have been a mistake, too. Joffe manages to find the right balance.
The movie's weakness is in its script. It's as twisty as a pretzel, and most of the time, it works (as long as you're paying attention). It makes a couple moves, though, that don't quite ring true. Fortunately, they're not overwhelming in the scheme of things.
The entire cast is outstanding. Patricia Arquette has never been sexier, or scarier, and she lives up to the movie's tagline, "No one's ever been so good at being so bad." She throws herself into singing songs from The Sound of Music, for which Sandra has such affection. But it's Ellen DeGeneres who really shines here. Her deadpan, straight-faced, and understated performance is at times laugh-out-loud funny and remains one of the few consistent elements in a story that twists and turns like a mountain road. In her relationship with Rollins, she moves from utter amazement at his naivete to a kind of gruff protectiveness. As Rollins, Ray McKinnon is perhaps at times a bit too wide-eyed and slack-jawed, but his performance works.
Goodbye Lover is unapologetically lurid. It's full of mirrors and seems to wonder what these characters see in the glass when they look at their reflections — themselves, or the images they've cultivated to hide their true personalities? The picture is full of double-crosses, sex, and betrayal, and involves a serial killer called The Doctor who injects his victims with curare, a hired killer named Mike, a senator with a dirty secret, and an accordian-playing midget at a Las Vegas wedding chapel. This isn't the kind of movie that can be watched while doing something else — it requires attention to keep up with all that's going on. But that's easy to do with Goodbye Lover, which is slickly made, easy on the eye, and very entertaining in a guilty-pleasure kind of way.
[Out of a possible four Bloodshot Eyeballs.]
Goodbye Lover
|
|
